1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to home network systems interoperable with portable electronic devices, and more particularly to a portable device-interoperable home network system wherein a home server is provided to control a plurality of home appliances in a home, and a portable device server is connected with the home server to transfer home appliance control information and so forth from the home server to a user's portable electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In home network systems, generally, a plurality of home appliances installed in each home are equipped with network interfaces, respectively, so that they can be networked so as to be controllable over an internal network.
In particular, recently, with the significant increase in the use of the Internet and the reduction in users' time spent at homes, the demand for home network systems in which the users can control home appliances in their homes over the Internet from anywhere outside of the homes has rapidly increased.
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of one such conventional home network system.
As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional home network system comprises a plurality of network interfaces 1 installed respectively in a plurality of home appliances in a home to transmit and receive data, and a home server 2 for controlling transmission and reception of data on an internal network through the network interfaces 1. The home server 2 is also adapted to transmit and receive data to/from an external Internet network.
By means of this configuration, a home appliance user is able to access the home server 2 through a personal computer (PC) on the external Internet network from a place outside of the home and then control the home appliances in the home.
However, the above-mentioned conventional home network system has a disadvantage in that the home appliance user who uses an external PC or etc. cannot recognize a situation occurring in the home from the outside of the home, so he/she cannot recognize a fire or gas leak if one occurs in the home.